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konrad-posch
Reviews
Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
A facsimile of the book it is not... Good
I'm struggling to understand the collection of reviewers who are sad (mad even) that this isn't a scene for scene adaptation of the book.
Of course it isn't. It shouldn't be.
For the film critics who thought it was too on the nose in 2018? Yeah. History in the moment seems banal. But in the hindsight of even 6 years later (2024), these complaints are laughable.
You think this is a parable about Trump and MAGA? Sure. But it's also more than that. It's the same way the book was more than McCarthyism.
Yet given that the book and the movie both habe the core conceit of people memorizing books as the strongest act of rebellion, I'm forced to consider that slavish fans of the book may not see the irony in memorizing art rather than experiencing it and reinterpreting it.
This is not the greatest dystopian movie ever made. But it's a good one that meaningfully adapts the source material into a poignant allegory of 2018. What the hell else can anyone expect of a movie based on an allegorical book?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom (2022)
Echos of Tinker tenor doctor spy. That's a good thing!
As others have pointed out, this is a classic trek (both tos and 90s era) type of episode where a contrivance allows the crew to play a bit silly but still have a trek moral. Always dangerous to do in a first season (tng did it ep 2, bad choice) but with 10 ep seasons, dropping it in the second half is a good choice. We know the characters enough to enjoy them playing different people.
It's endearing without being annoying and we get to enjoy a fun romp with characters we've come to like. Sounds exactly like what star trek has always and will always be best at. Sign me up Scotty. I mean Hemmer.
Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 2 (2021)
If this didn't work for you, I'm not sure you know what Trek is.
Discovery has had its ups and downs with mild to major reboots throughout the first 3 seasons. Hi, welcome to the history of Trek.
But if you can't appreciate what this last season has done up to and including the beautiful flourish of the Roddenberry quote at the end of the last episode of the season, we'll then quite frankly, there's the airlock. Bye!
Good Trek is melodramatic morality plays in space with good humor, puckish infighting, and an ultimate resolve to let good but imperfect people find their way to do good in an imperfect world.
We kinda need that. We don't need the edge lord purists. Beam right on out of here you, P'takh
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020)
Edge lords go oomax yourselves, this is an excellent look at the sillier side of utopia
I've been overusing edge lord recently, but damn if these reviews dont embody that toxic nerd archetype.
On the Solo-rogue one scale of new-entries-in-a-legendary-franchise, Lower Decks clearly falls on the rogue one side: it takes the beloved style, universe, rules, and tropes of the franchise and gives us new characters doing recognizable yet new things. It also captures the DS9 (quark, holodeck, dax, etc) irreverence which Orville teased us with and still keeps a deeper respect for the underlying awesome of Trek (decent but imperfect folk in a good world trying to do good the way they know how).
They have danced close to overplaying the lower decks/senior officer rivalry but nothing decent doesn't push the edge.
Bottom line: lower decks earnestly yet irreverently shows the sillier side of utopia. After all the darker, heavily serialized, dys-utopias of modern trek, LD gives us hope and laughs in episodic form.
If the edge lords can't embrace that, today might be a good day to die.... (if you aren't enough of a trekkie to get that reference, I'm sorry.... For you).
P. S. Dear edge Lords, I'm a bigger trekkie and star wars fan than you. I'd never throw down like that IRL, but if you wanna, I'd win. Get TF over yourselves and enjoy (or step away from) an earnest take on Trek.
Star Trek: The Way to Eden (1969)
Gotta be a real Herbert to Fail to Reach
Like any decent Star Trek episode, this is a morality play in space. Other reviewers have offered a variety of perspectives on whether to take this straight (Meh) or comedy (sure) or satire (shrug). Let me offer another: it's a morality play in space.
As such, it treats it's subjects seriously but entertainingly subject to the constraints of the genre, time, format, and franchise.
The hippies WERE ridiculous, but they also had enough insight/depth that they attracted a diverse group of folks from different parts of society to some of what they were saying.
Main stream/normcore/establishment folks ARE a semblance of uniformity and agreed patterns of conduct atop a diverse group of folks who see non-conformity from different levels of sympathy, distain and agreement.
Not all subversives agree and one doesn't have to be pure to have or make a point; Roddenberry, Kirk, Spock, Checkov all see themselves as subversive many times throughout the show but find subversion of their own imperfect comfort zones challenging and react in different ways (intrigue, sympathy, satire, revulsion, pity, anger, etc.)
Star Trek (tos and the franchise) is many things, but one of its finest is providing enough complexity in an hour to spark many different responses to topical issues. By that bar, this episode succeeds.
And the production quality (music, acting) is really rather good despite 3rd season cuts.
Stargate SG-1: Family Ties (2007)
Season 10 fan service (and that's a good thing)
If you're in the final season of a long running scifi (or any genre) show and you don't enjoy fan service, you've made some serious mistakes about all the episodes you've watched until this point.
Fun character scenes, good guest stars, our heros and friends being plucky versions of themselves, what more could you ask for?
The standalone, the ship Episode, the Fan service piece, the "letting down their hair"/holodeck episode; these are archetypes of good scifi and if you don't enjoy them, fine, but you should really ask yourself why you're watching season 10.
Not all episodes of a series should be archetypes. But a well done archetype episode is a thing of beauty. This is that.
Stargate SG-1: Holiday (1999)
Chris Judge doesn't get enough credit
While a classic sci-fi trope, the switched minds polt is always a fun chance to see how costars interpret their costars performances. Christopher Judge (Teal'c) really shines both by playing a typically sarcastic and expressive O'Neill as well as highlighting how hard it is to play his usual straightman withoit being overly wooden. Richard Dean Anderson does a passable to fun version of Teal'c and the pair is always fun, but Judge's O'Neill is simply great.